PelhamToday received the following letter from reader Jim Pitt regarding Pelham's budget process:
I see that the Town is beginning the budget process for 2024.
Out of curiosity I was looking for the number of Town employees but that's a difficult number to find. A site called Zoominfo said we have 151. I don't know if this is accurate but it sounds plausible.
I also ran across a very recent Public Works Department proposal to hire a couple of workers. Interestingly the document made its case by citing statistics from 1990. The Town had grown from 13,328 to 18,192 today, 27 percent more souls. The Works department had 12 employees in 1990 and now has 18, 50 percent more workers. The Town had 37 full time positions in 1990 and now has 77, an increase of 108 percent. I guess the 151 employee number includes all the part time employees as well.
Since we moved here in late 1989 our property taxes have gone up 266 percent but if the Town increased taxes at the rate of inflation they should have gone up 101percent.
So to summarize: the Town has grown by 27 percent over the last 33 years. The public works department has grown by 50 percent and the number of Town employees has grown by either 108 percent or 308 percent including part time employees.
I'll leave the reader to make their own assumptions about how the budget process should progress.
Jim Pitt
Fonthill
